Future Rotorcraft Capability - Maritime (Surface) Attack

formerly

Surface Combatant Maritime Rotorcraft (SCMR)

Notes:

Project designation:  ?
Integrated Project Team: Lynx
Status: Assessment Phase, Main Gate due late 2005
In Service Date:  2010

Background 
The Surface Combatant Maritime Rotorcraft (SCMR) is required to maintain and  extend the Royal Navy's above-water surveillance and attack capability in environments ranging from open ocean to littoral, in support of maritime, joint or combined operations.  39 Lynx Mk 3 and 36 Lynx Mk 8 currently provide this maritime capability.  A proposal from  Westland Helicopters Ltd Future Lynx (FLynx) is currently being assessed for both SCMR and the associated Battlefield Light Utility Helicopter (BLUH) requirement to support Air Manoeuvre, Littoral (sea to shore) Manoeuvre, and Special Forces operations within the Joint Task Force.

The Westland Lynx has been in service with the Royal Navy since the 1970's operating primarily from frigates and destroyers, acting as an ‘eye in the sky’, a weapons platform and a means of rapid transport for small small numbers of personnel and equipment.  The latest variant is called the Lynx Helicopter Medium Attack Mark 8 (or Lynx HMA.8), of which the RN procured 44.  The SCMR) project seeks a replacement for the capability provided by the RN's Lynx's.  The equivalent programme for the Army, which also operates :Lynx's,  is the Battlefield Light Utility Helicopter (BLUH).  An earlier study by the Ministry of Defence has already shown that Future Lynx has the potential to meet the needs of both Services, and additional studies will further evaluate its potential and also examine alternatives.

Initial Gate (IG) approval for BLUH was given in December 2001, although the Assessment Phase (AP) contract with Westland Helicopters Ltd (WHL) did not become effective until May 2002. In July 2002 a contract worth £10 million was awarded by the Lynx Integrated Project Team, based at MoD Abbey Wood and Yeovilton, to assess the suitability of Future Lynx for use by the Royal Navy.   According to Defence Minister Lord Bach in a statement at the time: "Lynx has served the Royal Navy with distinction since the 1970s all over the world and has demonstrated its first class military capabilities in the Falklands conflict and the Gulf War.  These aircraft will need replacement in the next six years and we believe that Future Lynx offers great potential to fill this. [This] announcement gives AgustaWestland the opportunity to prove it can successfully deliver on this key capability."  The SCMR study was to run in parallel with a study for BLUH approved in 2001 into use of the aircraft by the Army.

Although subject to separate Initial Gate approvals, the BLUH and SCMR Assessment Phase programmes are running jointly with a single tender solution for WHL to develop and de-risk its FLynx proposal. Analysis undertaken for the BLUH IG business case showed that there was little to discriminate between single tender and competitive strategies for this requirement, but that single tender offered a faster route to provide the capability within the required timescale.

The forecast date for submission of the joint BLUH and SCMR Main Gate business case was December 2003, but this slipped to Spring 2004.  This was also missed, and the July 2004 command paper: "Delivering Security in a Changing World; Future Capabilities" included no news of progress and the project seemed to be in danger of out-right cancellation.

Workstrands were set up by the MOD in 2003 to find cheaper ways of "doing defence".  The relevant Workstrand 13 investigating Future Rotorcraft Equipment SCMR made some radical recommendations in its report to the UK’s Defence Management Board (DMB).  The question emerged as to whether a direct replacement for Lynx  was actually required, or whether the capability currently provided by the Lynx HMA.8 could be replaced by a lower cost combination of other systems: - Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV); upgraded RN Merlin HM.1's, RAF Merlin HM.3's, Army WAH-64 Apache's, leased civilian helicopters, etc.  In particular, it was suggested that for the transport and utility role, SCMR and BLUH could be merged with the SABR-light requirement. 

The AgustaWestland Merlin HM.3+ (previously a favourite for SABR) was considered to be larger and more expensive than ideal for a combined SCMR/BLUH/SABR-light requirement, while the Future Lynx was too small.  The NHIndustries NH90, or possibly the Sikorsky MH-60S/R, was seen as representing a much better compromise choice from most military points of view, and  Alain Gauthier, commercial director of NH Industries, said in September 2004 that Britain was considering buying 100 NH90 helicopters.  Scrapping Lynx without a direct replacement will result in substantial savings - the separate SCMR, BLUH and SABR projects were budgeted at nearly £4.2 billion, while the new combined approach was estimated at £3 billion.

The industrial (and political) requirement that SCMR and SABR aircraft must be manufactured in the UK made an interesting turn in May 2004 when was announced that GKN was negotiating the sale of its stake in AgustaWestland to Finmeccanica for £1 billion, making the company entirely Italian owned.  Completion of the deal is expected by the end of 2004.  The sale price includes £35 million to be held in escrow and repaid by GKN to Finmeccanica if the helicopter business is not awarded by the MOD the anticipated Future Lynx contract for SCMR/BLUH by May 2008.  Without FLynx work the old Westland Yeovil plant is expected to be quickly closed, Finmeccanica consolidating any outstanding EH.101 Merlin work at the Vergiate plant in Italy.   While any EADS offer in relation to NH90 might involve the Yeovil plant building the NH90's, EADS is far from keen about this approach because it already has three NH-90 assembly lines in Europe and plenty of spare capacity for a large (perhaps as many as 100 helicopters) UK order.  EADS believes that it will be able to offer a high enough UK content or offsets in its NH90 proposal for the industrial aspects to be acceptable to the UK government. 

The NH90 is currently available in two models - a dedicated Naval Frigate Helicopter (NFH) for the maritime mission, and a Tactical Transport Helicopter (TTH) for the army aviation role.  However for meeting the UK's combined SCMR/BLUH/SABR requirement EADS (effectively the 62.5% controlling shareholder of NHIndustries) is believed to be proposing some kind of hybrid solution, a senior source at NHIndustries said: "We can play with features taken from the TTH and NFH variants to put together a customer-optimised configuration."  The approach may be similar to Australia which selected the NH90 in August 2004, its MRH90 variant will be modelled on the German Army's version, with slight variations such as electrically-folding main rotor blades and extensive navalisation features, including emergency flotation kits.

After the command paper, the work started by the workstrand 13 was taken over by the Future Rotorcraft Coherency Study.  The study focused on three role requirements; delivered in both maritime and land environments: Find (effectively ISTAR); Attack (“Strike” in traditional RN terminology); and Lift.

On 24 March 2005 the MoD indicated that AgustaWestland's Future Lynx (FLynx) was its preferred option for meeting the Land Find and the Maritime (Surface) Attack elements of the Future Rotorcraft Capability requirement.  This decision was subject to negotiations with the company and agreeing acceptable contract conditions and prices.  It was stated that exact aircraft numbers for the Future Lynx, delivery schedule and In-Service Date would all be set at the time of the final "Main Gate" procurement decision expected later in 2005.  AgustaWestland welcomed the announcement and said that the estimated value of the programme was in the region of £1 billion.  Other sources suggested that 130 helicopters would be ordered.  EADS did not disputing the preferred status of the FLynx, despite having pressed the MoD to consider a rival bid based on its EC635.

The MOD's Investment Approvals Board (IAB) apparently approved the FLynx business case at its meeting on 6 August 2005, an industry source said “Future Lynx development for the Army and Navy was approved, subject to various conditions, particularly whether AgustaWestland can demonstrate value for money.”

The capability offered by FLynx is being rigorously assessed against the requirement for both BLUH and SCMR with an emphasis on maintaining commonality between the two aircraft where this offers best value. Independent product benchmarking is assessing the value for money of the FLynx compared with the AB139, NH90, UH-60M and EC655 helicopters, in particular  EADS has for a long time been strongly requesting that the UK MoD look to its NH90.  Demonstrating Value for Money may mean that competitors will be invited to submit indicative quotations against the same "Land Find and Maritime (Surface) Attack" user requirements. and capability provision.  If any of these quotations are significantly less than AgustaWestland has indicated with its FLynx proposal, then a reversion to a competitive tender situation is possible.

Reports in February 2006 indicated that the Ministry of Defence would sign a contract within a few weeks for AgustaWestland to remanufacture up to 80 Lynx utility helicopters for the British Army and UK Royal Navy. The Future Lynx programme has already received backing from the MoD’s Investment Approvals Board and is now with ministers awaiting a final contract go-ahead, say industry and ministry sources. 

Future Lynx is a development of the AgustaWestland Super Lynx 300, the latest export version of the Lynx.  Super Lynx 300 has an improved airframe which should allow a service life of at least 25 years, a new engine which will operate more effectively in hot and high conditions, and a modern avionics suite.  Future Lynx has a greater load carrying ability and further avionics improvements.  UK investment in the Future Lynx will benefit from key systems already incorporated in Super Lynx airframes ordered by customers including Malaysia, Oman and South Africa, while the platform will also leverage elements of a £750 million ($1.3 billion) upgrade to at least 30 of the RN’s EH101 Merlin HM1s. The Future Lynx will share touchscreen cockpit displays with the Merlin Capability Sustainment Programme (CSP) platform and the US Navy’s EH101-based VH-71 presidential helicopter, and could also later undergo the Merlin’s electrically actuated fly-by-wire control upgrade, says AgustaWestland.

Future Anti-Surface Guided Weapon

Closely associated with SCMR is the FASGR.  In April 1999 approval was given to raise User Requirement Document (Sea) 6625 - a requirement a helo-launched FASGW (future anti-surface guided weapon) system to replace the Sea Skua from 2009 (later changed to 2012 and then in 2004 to "first half of the next decade").

Changes in the operational environment, increases in target capability and the inevitable advance in technology have led to the requirement for a modern, capable anti-surface weapon as part of the Maritime Contribution to Joint Operations in the littoral. The Future Anti-Surface Guided Weapon (FASGW) is intended to meet this requirement and hence ensure the Royal Navy maintains its Anti-Surface Warfare (ASuW) attack capability.

FASGW will provide a cost-effective ASuW delivery system to meet the perceived threat of Fast Attack Craft (FAC) and to help establish Sea Control/Sea Denial within the area of operations (including the littoral).  FASGW is focussed on Corvette sized (and smaller) targets (including missile firing FACs), and on coastal "soft" land targets.

Because of the subsequent decision to delay the programme by several years, FASGW still remains early in its concept phase.  To date, a number of research studies have been conducted in support of the FASGW concept, as well as some operational analysis. Industry has also carried out some private venture funded pre-feasibility studies. 

The exact nature of the system formally remains open until Concept Phase is completed at Initial Gate, although the leading contender for FASGW remains a Guided Missile launched from an air platform.  A study into anti-ship capabilities has concluded that helicopters are the most cost-effective Anti-Surface Weapon platforms to meet the proposed threat, particularly in areas of high background, non-hostile shipping density and where stringent Rules of Engagement provide an additional challenge.  Until Initial Gate is approved, other options will also be assessed on a continuing basis.

It is now anticipated that the preferred procurement option will be an off-the-shelf solution if suitable candidates are available. 

A final investment decision will be made at the programmes Main Gate, currently planned for the second half of this decade, with the capability entering service during the first half of the next decade.

FRC - M(S)A Links

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NHIndustries - NH90

EADS - NH90 a Strong Contender for UK’s Helicopter Requirements

AugustaWestland - Super Lynx 300

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